Few teams start tanking this early. I don't think they are, and I don't think they should. Why tank when you suck anyway? The team is at a point where they need to start trying to win. Plus if the league ever decides to crack down on it, we'd be a prime candidate to make an example of since we did blatantly tank 2 years in a row. Besides, we'd get better draft capital by having Grant/Brogdon play well so we can trade them.
Man, Detroit has lost like 21 in a row. I think the bottom three are locked in. There’s no reason for San Antonio to be THIS bad.
I don’t think we are tanking but also think we are being really cautious with these trade assets like Brogdon and Grant. We need to trade them it’s obvious that we can get really good value out of them and they don’t fit our timeline. One more big trade for good young power forward or additional draft stock should set us up nicely
yuck i think it’s more obvious that we have young guys who are still trying to figure out how to close games. That said I’m not ruling out that we will tank later in year if we aren’t in playoff contention
I think what's obvious is often in the eye of the beholder and is influenced by what they want to see happen. I don't see any intent by the players to lose. They've been busting their asses and have been in games down to the wire that most "experts" would have said they had no business competing in. I don't see any intent by Chauncey to lose. He's consistently had what he thought was the most competitive lineup in at the close of games. I don't think any of the injuries (which have had more to do with losing that anything else) can realistically be chalked up to tanking. Ant's thumb and Williams' knee were demonstrably true reasons to be out of the rotation. Grant's absence is due to league-mandated concussion protocols. Ayton's and Brodgon's knee soreness are pretty typical injuries that can cause players to miss a few games. The next stretch of 8 games is a softer schedule that will likely feature a return of the guys who have been out. It should prove the tanking issue one way or another.
As I said previously in another thread, it feels like they are being creative with their tanking. They play each game to win with who they have available, but I bet they play more players at home to assure the fans get their money's worth than they do on the road. Any opportunity they get to rest someone....they are taking it.
Three starters out for about 2 weeks (so far) with "knee soreness" or "concussion protocol". That is organizational tanking.
How do we really know, though? Have we even had two consecutive games where we had our full complement of rotation-level players? Can we really know whether or not this team is actually decent when all our best players are available and healthy for an extended period of time if we've never seen it?
I don't think they are tanking, Trainers follow a strict protocol on concussions. As for Brogdon, if they are planning to trade him, they want to make really sure he is healthy at the deadline. Ayton?
Especially since they are having terrible third quarters where you would think Popovich coaching would have a positive effect.
In the next draft, moving up or down a few places should not matter. Especially if you have confidence in the scouting staff to find the best player for the team anywhere in the draft. This is the perfect time to experiment. Give everyone a fair chance to show what they can do. While playing with rotations to find the pieces that fit together.
Players and coaches don't tank. GMs build teams to tank. Any coach or player who tries to throw a game intentionally is a cancer and needs to be removed from the team.
